Buyer Sought for Slumping Airline Servicing Facility
By DAVID GREENBERG
Staff Reporter
The Palmdale plant of SR Technics, a commercial airline maintenance facility that just last year had lofty expansion goals, will shut down if a buyer isn’t found by March 15, company officials said.
The firm, which planned on hiring up to 5,000 workers by 2005, has been a victim of the post-Sept. 11 airline slump. SR Technics’ parent, Zurich-based SAirGroup, has been reeling since another of its companies, SwissAir Group, filed for bankruptcy protection Oct. 11.
From its 565-person peak in September, the plant has gone through four rounds of layoffs. There currently are 200 people working at the facility, but 100 of them will be laid off in March, company officials said.
As of last week, three investment groups had made bids for the Palmdale operation. SR Technics officials refused to disclose the amounts or say whether any of the offers were within the minimum its Zurich-based owner SAirGroup would accept. Another six prospective buyers are scheduled to evaluate the operation within the next two weeks before deciding whether they will bid, officials said.
Even if the company is sold, the long-term status of the remaining 200 employees is unclear because there are no assurances that the buyer would keep the operation in the area.
“If we’re not successful in attracting a buyer for the facility, we will need to close by the first of May,” said Michael Rodyniuk, an SR Technics’ vice president.
The local operation was providing a range of services from maintenance to a complete modification of DC-10s into cargo planes. It has serviced 65 airplanes since August 2000.
The plant is one of six maintenance and modification plants under the umbrella of Zurich-based SR Technics Group. Besides Palmdale, the group plans to close its Paris, Hong Kong, Johannesburg, and Shannon, Ireland operations by the end of the year, leaving only the Zurich plant in tact.
Although no Swissair planes were serviced in Palmdale, the airline made up 40 percent of SR Technics’ worldwide revenue. “The SR Technics Group simply cannot afford to continue to fund our growth here,” said Rodyniuk. “When (the airline) filed for protection from creditors, that stopped the cash flow to us.”
Swissair bailout
A scaled-down Swissair is scheduled to come out of bankruptcy protection in April when it will be renamed Swiss Air Lines. Swissair has been flying since October after a $1.2 billion bailout by the Swiss government.
Locally, SR Technics still has long-term contracts with Boeing Co., FedEx Corp. and Hawaiian Airlines Inc. But company officials told those customers earlier this year that the plant would no longer service additional planes.
The last plane in the plant, a Boeing DC-10 being modified into a cargo plane for FedEx, will be delivered to the carrier in April.
“They are not taking any more aircraft because they can’t assure the customers they can complete the work,” said David Myers, president of the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance. “It certainly isn’t good news. It’s another blemish on the county in the commercial airline sector.”
Brian Hermansader, vice president of maintenance and engineering for Hawaiian Airlines, said that while line maintenance is a competitive business, “they have a big emphasis on training and are well organized. They do an excellent job.”
Rodyniuk said his company would consider letting a buyer use the SR Technics brand name as part of a sales agreement.
